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China’s H-20 stealth bomber is a mystery: If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, then China’s defense-industrial enterprises succeed in flattering about half the world.

The tendency of Beijing’s advanced weapons platforms to appear to be partially or completely reverse-engineered analogs of designs from other countries is well known.

H-20 Bomber Mock Up. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

H-20 Bomber from China. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Many analysts are still waiting to see a genuine, indigenous Chinese invention rather than a copy of someone else’s kit.

During the 1995–1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, the United States did more than demonstrate political resolve. It demonstrated operational reach in a form Beijing could neither match nor meaningfully contest. Two aircraft carrier battle groups moved into waters proximate to Taiwan, establishing an immediate airpower presence and underscoring Washington’s ability to intervene on short notice.

For Chinese planners, the most consequential lesson was not diplomatic. It was military and deeply uncomfortable. The People’s Liberation Army struggled to consistently track those carriers.

Australia has committed an investment of A$750m for the manufacturing of 268 next generation Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles.

Playing Battlefield 6 online is like your boot-camp platoon: a mixed bag of great humans, massive turds, and everything in-between.
In some matches, you have players who want to work as a team. In others, you’re punching the air because they only care about their kill/death ratio. The former is definitely a lot more fun than the latter, but one thing is absolutely missing from most matches—support by fire.

19FortyFive loves the F-16 fighter and has spent a lot of time over the last 9 months or so taking as much original photography of the legendary warplane as you can see below. But times are changing: The Lockheed Martin F-21 is a proposed, advanced single-engine multi-role fighter jet based on the F-16 Fighting Falcon, specifically tailored for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

It features advanced avionics, including a modern AESA radar, new cockpit displays, and technologies derived from the F-22 and F-35.

19FortyFive spent a lot of time with this fighter jet (both fighters that were built, that is), and we have the photos in this essay to prove it. The YF-23, colloquially known as the Black Widow II, was a prototype stealth fighter developed by Northrop and McDonnell Douglas for the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The Pentagon is proposing a massive spending increase for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, or DAWG, which oversees the development of drones and other unmanned systems.
The Defense Department’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 asks for nearly $54 billion for the DAWG, up from just $225.9 million that it has received for the current fiscal year, budget documents show. 
The DAWG was created to unify the Defense Department’s efforts to quickly mass-produce unmanned systems for U.S. troops, a Pentagon official told Task & Purpose.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced in December that the U.S. Navy would pursue development of a new “Trump-Class Battleship.”

In a speech typical of the president, he declared it would be “the fastest, the biggest, and by far, 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built.”

Iowa-Class 5-Inch Guns. Image by Harry J. Kazianis/National Security Journal.

Those Iowa-Class Guns. Image Credit: Harry J. Kazianis/National Security Journal.

Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at CSIS, wrote on December 23 that “this ship will never sail.”

Cancian is probably right.

The French firm Thales which was a primary developer of the SAMP/T NG has announced that the Danish Defence Ministry has signed a contract to purchase system, becoming the first client for the system outside the two developer countries France and Italy. Denmark will initially purchase four systems totally approximately €1.47 billion as part of the country national air defence plan, with a total budget of €7.8 billion.